The World Bank Group headquarters during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. The IMF trimmed its global-growth projections, warning of high uncertainty and risks as financial-sector stress adds to pressures emanating from tighter monetary policy. Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images

LUSAKA, April 11 (Reuters) – Zambia will resume construction of a power line linking it to East Africa, creating one of the largest energy markets in the world, a senior World Bank official said on Friday.

Work on the Zambia–Tanzania Interconnector Project is set to resume this month, with estimated completion in 2028, Achim Fock, country manager for Zambia at the World Bank, said on Friday during a signing ceremony.

The $320 million project to connect Zambia and Tanzania’s power supplies is being financed by the World Bank, the European Union and Britain.

The cost of the remaining work is $298 million, of which a World Bank grant will cover $245 million, Acting Finance Minister Chipoka Mulenga said, at the same event.

The project was first floated more than a decade ago but has been stalled for various reasons, most recently due to COVID-19 as well as concerns over Zambia’s debt default in late 2020.

Zambia struck a deal with bondholders last year and is seen as a test case for a debt rework under the Common Framework, a G20 platform to bring together big creditors like China and the group of established creditor nations known as the Paris Club.

Fock said an integrated market connecting the Southern and East African power pools would help lower electricity costs and increase energy security, and create new opportunities for trade and investment in the power sector across Africa.

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(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Tannur Anders and Rachna Uppal)